UsIn Jungian psychology, the "shadow" is that part of our personalities that runs counter to the image of ourselves that we consciously identify with--what we repress or hide from the world. Us is a psychological horror film by Jordan Peele about a family victimized by a home invasion--more specifically, they are attacked by a group of doppelgangers. Equally puzzled and horrified by the event, the family struggles to fight off their twisted simulacra, all of whom wear red jumpsuits and a single glove each, from which they wield deadly shears. Before and after the attack, the family's matriarch, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o), experiences flashbacks to a night from her childhood that holds the key to unlocking the mystery behind the invasion that soon after takes on apocalyptic proportions.
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Beneath the scares and suspense, Us is a horror movie driven by metaphor and is at its most effective when it uses its characters and setting to explore the unspoken or unexplained terrors that lurk within our society and within each of us. The Wilson family may not be rich, but are well-off enough to enjoy their yearly vacation at their beach house in an affluent community in California. Adelaide's husband, Gabriel "Gabe" Wilson (Winston Duke), is a loving father and is well-educated. He comes across as a bit of a goof or big teddy bear, and enjoys his toys, which includes a second-hand boat that he shows off to his family. Their eldest daughter, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph), is going through that typical teen phase peppered with angst and cynicism, and spends all her time texting on her metallic pink iPhone and insisting that she's old enough to drive. Their youngest son, Jason (Evan Alex), is a bit more withdrawn, and likes to run around in a Halloween mask and scare his sister, or performing magic tricks with a busted lighter. The Wilson family's priorities and interests are so normal as to be almost cliche; this includes hanging out with the Tyler family at Santa Cruz beach, where Gabe compares his new boat with the one owned by his buddy, the tattoo-covered Josh Tyler (Tim Heidecker), while his wife, Kitty (Elisabeth Moss), goes on about her recent face lift as she nurses her third glass of rosé. Adelaide's flashbacks to her childhood birthday--taking place on the boardwalk of the same beach--imply that her childhood was comprised of similar experiences...empty rituals devoid of real sentiment or meaning. She recalls her inebriated father, Russel (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), winning her a Michael Jackson's "Thriller" t-shirt in a carny game, while her mother, Rayne (Anna Diop), lectures him to keep an eye on her. While her father is preoccupied, the younger Adelaide (played by Madison Curry and Ashley McKoy) wanders into a mysterious mirrored attraction that ominously invites patrons to "find themselves" within its sinister-looking walls. Adelaide's experience leaves her seemingly shaken and too disturbed to talk--an experience that floats back up to her surface thoughts after Gabe mentions taking a trip to Santa Cruz beach, making her visibly unsettled by the mere suggestion. Adelaide relates the story of her disturbing visit to the creepy hall of mirrors to Gabe later that night, doing so while staring at her own reflection in the bedroom window. Reflections and inversions of what is "real" is a key motif in Us. When the doppelgangers--who refer to themselves as "Tethered"--invade, they are physically almost identical to their counterparts, although their behavior is full of rage and hatred. Adelaide's doppelganger--credited as "Red"--is the first to speak after cornering the family; she tells the story of a girl and her shadow, and how the shadow was forced to experience a grim and horrible life that was a terrible perversion of the comparatively charmed existence that Adelaide and her family have enjoyed. The Tethered are like evil versions of the Wilson family, embracing the dark sides within themselves that they dare not let see the light of day. In this, the Tethered become the Jungian "shadows" of the Wilson family, reflecting their most sinister aspects back at them and threatening them in both mind and body.
The motif of reflections insinuates itself into the audience's psyche early on through subtle clues. One repeated example of this originates with a man at the beach in 1986 who holds a cardboard sign that reads "Jeremiah 11:11", referring to a passage from the Bible that says "therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them". While the passage itself speaks to the chaos that unfurls in the final act of Us--and its message about the distorted values cultivated in contemporary American society, like consumerism--the image of "11:11" itself is a reflection, not unlike a palindrome. This numerical coincidence returns just before the Tethered lay siege to the Wilson's homestead, since the digital clocks within their home read "11:11" at the onset of the invasion. Just as the Tethered are echoes of the Wilsons, there are numerous moments in the dialogue that are revisited, and often carry ominous portent when they are first uttered in the film, like when Adelaide first tells Zora to put on her shoes and "run"--since she is fond of running--compared to when she is told a second time under far less pleasant circumstances. Us opens with a slow zoom into a CRT television set circa 1986, including a commercial for the Hands Across America event; prior to this, a title card describes how the United States possesses a vast network of underground tunnels and paths beneath its surface, including some whose purpose remains unknown. Casual references to the Tethered can even be found in seemingly innocuous details in this preamble, including a VHS copy of C.H.U.D. resting next to the television set the young Adelaide watches. From the Wilsons to (pointedly) the Tylers--including their bratty twin daughters, Becca and Lindsey (Cali and Noelle Sheldon)--Us emphasizes that the Tethered are manifestations of the unspoken evils that motivate a capitalist society. When Adelaide asks Red what they are, Red replies that they are "Americans". Through this declaration, Red insinuates that she and her comrades represent the worst elements of a nation that prides monetary and superficial success over spiritual virtues. Kitty Tyler barely contains her jealousy at Adelaide's physique while they are at the beach, and quietly regrets that she might have been a "movie star" had she not become pregnant. The Wilsons--and those like them in their community--enjoy wealth and privilege, which Red clearly resents; she recalls eating "raw rabbit" for Christmas, while Adelaide and her loved ones dined on finer fare. The real reason that the Tethered invade the Wilson's home is born from jealousy for the "good life", and they are willing to kill for it if they have to, forcing the Wilsons into a "kill-or-be-killed" scenario. Violence is not a part of their lives; when it strikes them, they are unprepared--like rabbits caught within the jaws of ravenous beasts. Yet the more that Adelaide and the rest of her family are exposed to violence, the more they gradually become inured to it. At times, this is played for comedy--like when they compare "kill counts" to decide who should drive the car--but other scenes show how the escalation of violence leaves characters like Adelaide grunting and howling, ultimately resembling her Tethered counterpart, Red. The acts of violence that the Tethered introduce is a reflection of the angry, hateful, and even abusive sides of people that they pretend don't exist, for fear that to acknowledge that darkness means redefining what it means to be a "good person".
Us explores feelings of anxiety and dread by paying homage to horror and thriller classics. One of the most visible examples of this comes from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Consider how the Wilsons are faced with evil versions of themselves, similar to how Jack Torrance is twisted into a monstrous version of his former self through the film. When Gabe or Adelaide shuffle around in pain with makeshift weapon in hand, driven by adrenaline, it recalls the shambling of Jack in the Overlook Hotel, armed with a fire ax. That Jason hides (twice) in a cabinet also recalls young Danny Torrance doing the same; both children also possess a keen talent for seeing beyond the superficial and into the horrible truths hiding underneath. The invasion itself also shares commonalities with Michael Haneke's Funny Games; there is even a fateful encounter involving a motorized boat in both films, as well as baseball bats being wielded as weapons. As in Funny Games, the predators don a form of camouflage to resemble their prey, while employing the most extreme and amoral means of victimizing their quarry. The feeling of being harried by a killer that envies the comfortable lifestyle that the Wilsons enjoy recalls the malevolent Max Cady from Cape Fear, who similarly forces the target of his animosity to sink to his level in a brutal fight for survival that runs counter to the tenets of civilized society. That an ordinarily pleasant day at the beach could impart feelings of horror and dread--as it is for the older Adelaide when she feels the shadow of her prior experience creeping up on her--is reminiscent of the television series, "The Sinner". Furthermore, the concept of versions of ourselves proving to be our own worst enemy recalls both the beloved episode of "The Twilight Zone" series, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", and even Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" episode. Moments of terror yet to come are foreshadowed in articles of clothing worn by successive generations of the Wilson family; young Adelaide's Thriller t-shirt predicts the zombie-like waves of Tethered that invade Santa Cruz, while Jason's Jaws t-shirt becomes grimly apropos when Gabe finds himself out on the water with his killer duplicate. Even the undercurrent of cynicism toward consumerism that runs deep through Us recalls David Bowie's song, "I'm Afraid of Americans". Yet the work of fiction that shares the most thematic similarities with Us is Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland". When the opening credits roll, the film slowly zooms out from a collection of rabbits in tiny cages; when Adelaide chases Red into the subterranean underworld at the film's climax, she is descending through a figurative rabbit hole, and entering an alternate reality that operates on its own interpretation of logic. Red describes her mission to invade the surface world as one which was revealed to her by God--something akin to a moral imperative or revolution. Regardless of her motives, the unfolding chaos has all the trimmings of an Old Testament plague. She and her underground army emerge and swarm over the land, engaging in rituals that are themselves hollow and empty, as if born from a mind that misinterpreted the values of the world through a filter. Red claims that she and her kind have lurked beneath the surface for "generations", adding that they were an experiment to "control" the populous--a failed one that left them discarded and forgotten. Red's indignation compels her to cast judgment on the people above ground, blaming all for the crimes of generations past, clinging to her smoldering rage for long-past tortures. This raises the question of whether the current generation of surface dwellers should be held accountable for the crimes of those long dead, or if the self-righteous fury of the Tethered has warped their perception of reality, blinding them to see that revenge and justice are not the same thing, and one cannot be substituted for the other.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychological horror film that merges suspense and dread with jump-out scares and metaphor-driven commentary about consumerism, class disparity, and the dark shadows of ourselves that we hide from the world. Us brews its palpable sense of unease early on--an effective strategy that adds depth to each successive scare--and each revelation about the Tethered adds layers to its subtext of social commentary while staying the course as a tense horror film.
The motif of reflections insinuates itself into the audience's psyche early on through subtle clues. One repeated example of this originates with a man at the beach in 1986 who holds a cardboard sign that reads "Jeremiah 11:11", referring to a passage from the Bible that says "therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them". While the passage itself speaks to the chaos that unfurls in the final act of Us--and its message about the distorted values cultivated in contemporary American society, like consumerism--the image of "11:11" itself is a reflection, not unlike a palindrome. This numerical coincidence returns just before the Tethered lay siege to the Wilson's homestead, since the digital clocks within their home read "11:11" at the onset of the invasion. Just as the Tethered are echoes of the Wilsons, there are numerous moments in the dialogue that are revisited, and often carry ominous portent when they are first uttered in the film, like when Adelaide first tells Zora to put on her shoes and "run"--since she is fond of running--compared to when she is told a second time under far less pleasant circumstances. Us opens with a slow zoom into a CRT television set circa 1986, including a commercial for the Hands Across America event; prior to this, a title card describes how the United States possesses a vast network of underground tunnels and paths beneath its surface, including some whose purpose remains unknown. Casual references to the Tethered can even be found in seemingly innocuous details in this preamble, including a VHS copy of C.H.U.D. resting next to the television set the young Adelaide watches. From the Wilsons to (pointedly) the Tylers--including their bratty twin daughters, Becca and Lindsey (Cali and Noelle Sheldon)--Us emphasizes that the Tethered are manifestations of the unspoken evils that motivate a capitalist society. When Adelaide asks Red what they are, Red replies that they are "Americans". Through this declaration, Red insinuates that she and her comrades represent the worst elements of a nation that prides monetary and superficial success over spiritual virtues. Kitty Tyler barely contains her jealousy at Adelaide's physique while they are at the beach, and quietly regrets that she might have been a "movie star" had she not become pregnant. The Wilsons--and those like them in their community--enjoy wealth and privilege, which Red clearly resents; she recalls eating "raw rabbit" for Christmas, while Adelaide and her loved ones dined on finer fare. The real reason that the Tethered invade the Wilson's home is born from jealousy for the "good life", and they are willing to kill for it if they have to, forcing the Wilsons into a "kill-or-be-killed" scenario. Violence is not a part of their lives; when it strikes them, they are unprepared--like rabbits caught within the jaws of ravenous beasts. Yet the more that Adelaide and the rest of her family are exposed to violence, the more they gradually become inured to it. At times, this is played for comedy--like when they compare "kill counts" to decide who should drive the car--but other scenes show how the escalation of violence leaves characters like Adelaide grunting and howling, ultimately resembling her Tethered counterpart, Red. The acts of violence that the Tethered introduce is a reflection of the angry, hateful, and even abusive sides of people that they pretend don't exist, for fear that to acknowledge that darkness means redefining what it means to be a "good person".
Us explores feelings of anxiety and dread by paying homage to horror and thriller classics. One of the most visible examples of this comes from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Consider how the Wilsons are faced with evil versions of themselves, similar to how Jack Torrance is twisted into a monstrous version of his former self through the film. When Gabe or Adelaide shuffle around in pain with makeshift weapon in hand, driven by adrenaline, it recalls the shambling of Jack in the Overlook Hotel, armed with a fire ax. That Jason hides (twice) in a cabinet also recalls young Danny Torrance doing the same; both children also possess a keen talent for seeing beyond the superficial and into the horrible truths hiding underneath. The invasion itself also shares commonalities with Michael Haneke's Funny Games; there is even a fateful encounter involving a motorized boat in both films, as well as baseball bats being wielded as weapons. As in Funny Games, the predators don a form of camouflage to resemble their prey, while employing the most extreme and amoral means of victimizing their quarry. The feeling of being harried by a killer that envies the comfortable lifestyle that the Wilsons enjoy recalls the malevolent Max Cady from Cape Fear, who similarly forces the target of his animosity to sink to his level in a brutal fight for survival that runs counter to the tenets of civilized society. That an ordinarily pleasant day at the beach could impart feelings of horror and dread--as it is for the older Adelaide when she feels the shadow of her prior experience creeping up on her--is reminiscent of the television series, "The Sinner". Furthermore, the concept of versions of ourselves proving to be our own worst enemy recalls both the beloved episode of "The Twilight Zone" series, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", and even Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" episode. Moments of terror yet to come are foreshadowed in articles of clothing worn by successive generations of the Wilson family; young Adelaide's Thriller t-shirt predicts the zombie-like waves of Tethered that invade Santa Cruz, while Jason's Jaws t-shirt becomes grimly apropos when Gabe finds himself out on the water with his killer duplicate. Even the undercurrent of cynicism toward consumerism that runs deep through Us recalls David Bowie's song, "I'm Afraid of Americans". Yet the work of fiction that shares the most thematic similarities with Us is Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland". When the opening credits roll, the film slowly zooms out from a collection of rabbits in tiny cages; when Adelaide chases Red into the subterranean underworld at the film's climax, she is descending through a figurative rabbit hole, and entering an alternate reality that operates on its own interpretation of logic. Red describes her mission to invade the surface world as one which was revealed to her by God--something akin to a moral imperative or revolution. Regardless of her motives, the unfolding chaos has all the trimmings of an Old Testament plague. She and her underground army emerge and swarm over the land, engaging in rituals that are themselves hollow and empty, as if born from a mind that misinterpreted the values of the world through a filter. Red claims that she and her kind have lurked beneath the surface for "generations", adding that they were an experiment to "control" the populous--a failed one that left them discarded and forgotten. Red's indignation compels her to cast judgment on the people above ground, blaming all for the crimes of generations past, clinging to her smoldering rage for long-past tortures. This raises the question of whether the current generation of surface dwellers should be held accountable for the crimes of those long dead, or if the self-righteous fury of the Tethered has warped their perception of reality, blinding them to see that revenge and justice are not the same thing, and one cannot be substituted for the other.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychological horror film that merges suspense and dread with jump-out scares and metaphor-driven commentary about consumerism, class disparity, and the dark shadows of ourselves that we hide from the world. Us brews its palpable sense of unease early on--an effective strategy that adds depth to each successive scare--and each revelation about the Tethered adds layers to its subtext of social commentary while staying the course as a tense horror film.